Ever since the first film was made available for either purchase or rental many years ago, the consumer has thrived for more and more movies, films and programming to fully take advantage of home media technology. The present technology includes videotape as well as laser disc formats. These film purchase an rental markets make up a large percentage of the film business that exists today. As a result, most films that are shown in movie theaters are later released on videotape to realize further profits.
Today, most films are shot in a wide-screen or 70 mm format. One such wide-screen format is called CINEMASCOPE. A problem arises when it comes time to transferring a wide-screen film to video tape or laser disc to later be seen on a television. The problem is that the wide-screen picture has approximately a 2:1 (horizontal:vertical) aspect ratio while a conventional home television has approximately a 4:3 aspect ratio. In order to transfer a wide-screen film to video tape or to laser disc, the film must be either "panned and scanned" (or cropped) so the entire screen is filled. An alternative to this process is the transfer to video tape in "letterbox" format.
Letterbox format is a version where the entire wide-screen film has been transferred to the video tape or laser disc in its original aspect ratio. Consumer viewing in this format is preferred by many because the entire film has been transferred, no portion of the film has been cropped out. As a result, the consumer can view the film exactly how it appeared in the movie theater.
However, there is a serious drawback in the viewing of letterboxed films, there are two black bars present above and below the picture. Even though the bars are black, there is still some luminescence emitted from the screen causing the viewer to be distracted in knowing that his or her screen is not completely filled up. Many viewers of video tape, laser discs and other like formats desire the letterbox version of a film but find the black bars annoying and difficult to get used to.